Some tips/comments about the HM100 so far

[Ben Giles]

I’ve been shooting with my HM100 for a few months now, so here are a few tips and comments that may be useful to existing users and/or those thinking of buying. If it helps with context, you can find some info about me and what I do on my website: www.bengiles.co.uk

I think the image quality of the HM100 is fab. It can look a little drab and “technical” straight out of the camera but grades beautifully – low-lit stuff and on-the-edge highlights can easily be rescued. I use a combination of FCP and Magic Bullet for grading. The quality was noticeably better than a Z1 and easily on par with a Z7 on a recent 3 cam shoot. The HM100 was used on the jib in the following video:

YouTube - Andy Fisenden performs on the DTX950 - Vol.1

That’s the first of 4, all shot in an afternoon (that's my excuse, anyway...) You’ll find links to the remaining 3 if you’re interested.

Ergonomically, the camera takes a bit of getting used to. Compared to a pro broadcast camera, it’s a disaster. But I’m managing to get good results – just takes a bit of patience in getting used to foibles such as the aperture control being a fiddly little wheel at the back of the unit. For the price of this camera and what I’m achieving with it, I love it to bits and forgive most of it's "prosumer" compromises.

I use the following “accessories”:

Cinetactics matte box with regular and “oversized” French Flags, although I haven’t actually needed the additional flagging of the latter, so suggest you don’t bother with that in the first instance as the regular one is plenty big enough. I tried a Formatt 600 bolt-on matte box with a clamp-on adapter for my WA adapter and found it heavy and unwieldy. After a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth, I found the Cinetactics one and bought direct from the USA, but have since persuaded Proactive Video to import them here. Nice product, light weight and will also strap straight on to my JVC Wide Angle adapter. You’ll also need a 46 – 55mm and then a 55 – 72mm step-up ring in series to attach the Cinetactics base ring. You could try other size combinations, but I know this one works with absolutely no vignetting or fouling.

In lieu of the built-in lens cover of the JVC original lens hood, I use a clip-in Hama 72mm lens cover. The Matte Box stays on the camera all the time.

Kata HB-207 Rucksack – great quality, light weight and fits everything I need inside – Apple-esque attention to detail and customer service and the yellow lining makes finding small mic clips etc easy to find. Tough as old boots too.

Libec LS38 Tripod – good quality, light, but I really miss my Vinten 10 from years ago (couldn’t afford one this time around.) I’ve had to compromise on the odd long lens pan as the drag is non-adjustable, but for £300 or so, I’m happy to do that – bought it from H DEW Cameras. I’ve used Giotto plates to give a “quick release” to the camera and they’re easily as good, if not better, than the twice as costly Manfrotto 357/577 versions - they’re £21 per set from Amazon, where I’ve done a more detailed review:

Giottos MH631Sliding Quick Release Adapter Plate: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

 

Giottos MH631Sliding Quick Release Adapter Plate: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Hague Junior Jib – don’t know how they produce them for £195 + VAT. Lovely quality, hand made in Nottingham, ignore the “it’s grim oop north man in his shed” style website and bizarre product video. This thing really adds value to shots and I use it on top of the Libec, mounted on a Manfrotto rolling spider – you can see some shots of it on my website. The action is very smooth and it has proper bearings – not just bolts like the Indian jobbies, so I’ve had no issues. It is carried around in a Kata lighting stand bag – fits perfectly and, again, great quality. I use a 7” LCD HDMI Hi Def monitor – detailed below.

Habbycam Junior Shoulder Brace – imported this directly from the USA (beware Import Duty and the courier company charging clearance fees – these turn a $249 item into a £256 item plus VAT (£301.) Quality is fab, all anodised alloy and stainless steel loveliness – again, pics on my website. They’ve since created a 2 handle version which might make it even easier to use, albeit less compact. The camera is so much easier to hold and brace and, let’s face it, the shoulder brace makes the camera look less of a “toy” to clients – and you can always take it off if you need the small form factor thing. Again, I use a Giottos quick release plate, so the camera just slides on and off.

Hoodman LCD hood – invaluable on sunny days, tried making my own, but this just works.

7” HDMI 1920x1080P Monitor – bought from COOL LCD in Hong Kong, following glowing reviews from the DSLR boys. Details here:

LILLIPUT 7'' monitor,LILLIPUT 7'' touch screen,LILLIPUT 7'' TFT LCD VGA Monitor,LILLIPUT 7'' HDMI Monitor,LILLIPUT 619,LILLIPUT 619AH,LILLIPUT LCD Monitor

I love it, very light weight and I mount it on a Manfrotto Magic Arm kit which clamps on to the tripod. I power it with 12v CCTV camera batteries – again, imported from HK and they last for several hours each.

Rycote DV windjammer kit – quite expensive, but good quality and I use it with my Sennheiser 416. Bit cumbersome on the camera, but absolutely no on-camera sounds are picked up and the wind cut is excellent. Normally sits on the end of my Gitzo carbon fibre boom pole – worth the extra £20 or so over a Rode for the superior quality and lighter weight.

Hoya Pro Digital Polarising Filter – BEWARE!!! Works fine when you’re not using the optical stabiliser (ie when on the sticks) but, as I learnt to my horror, induces awful sweeping colour shifts with OIS on. Managed to rescue the shots in post and it is very useful for GVs etc – but only on with OIS switched OFF!!

Batteries – bought a load of £13 jobbies from Amazon, they do just as well as the JVC Data batteries. Yes, you have to plug a cable in to connect them to the DC input, but no probs there and a huge saving.

SDHC Cards – I use Verbatim 8 Gig cards, again from Amazon. I figure it’s best to spread the risk amongst multiple smaller cards than go for the jeopardy of 32 Gig cards. So far, no probs at all and I get 30 mins per card in 720P 35Meg quality.

Hope some of that helps – do post any questions and I’ll try and answer them when I can.

Cheers,

Ben..

[George Kilroy]

Hi Ben, nice post. I was sold on the HM100 until I use it on a shoot where I had to get ambient shots at a conference. The room was averagely lit, an environment I worked in well before with an Panasonic DVx100 without any real problem with the quality of image, however the footage from the JVC was all but unusable due to the extremely dark images with very flat contrast. It looked okay on the camera monitor.

You say that the the low-lit stuff can be rescued. How do you do that?
Trying to lift the level and contrast resulted in a very, very processed looking image, with very compressed colours.
I'd like to go back to it again as I really did like using it and the small size made it all but invisible to the people being shot but as most of my usage would be in ambient lit indoor environments I'd be reluctant to without a good fix for the footage.

[Steve Cottrell]

Superb report there Ben. Excellent. Working on news a lot, I have the Hague handheld mini-jib which I use for getting an ad-hoc high viewpoint with the ability to tilt. Although I didn't like the ratio of the hand actuator - to - tilt head, so changed it to 1:1, much better for what I do.

Great music video, nice edit ;-)

Steve C

[Sam Young]

Thanks for the report!

Amazing video as well, beautifully shot with a talented musician.

Can you link us to these jobbie batteries you speak of? I am currently using knock offs bought in Hong Kong, around $35USD a piece, they are data batteries (camcorder can read its battery stamina), and last longer than the JVC ones. Just wondering which ones you have. :)

[Ben Giles]

Hi Guys.

Thanks for the comments. George, I'd suggest the simple 3 way colour corrector in FCP - it gives you separate controls over blacks, mids and highs. Suggest you crudely crank up the mids and highs to start with and lift the overall saturation to compensate. That should give you a reasonable idea of what signal exists. Also, I wonder if your viewfinder brightness is set too high? I shot a quick video for a friend recently in fairly low light - just the available spotlights in a rehearsal studio. I managed to squeeze out the following signal:

YouTube - Mark Wilkin - the Groove Meister rolling out some Funky Licks

Sam, the batteries are regular Amazon JVC copies, like these:

JVC BN-VF823 Compatible Li-Ion Battery: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

 

JVC BN-VF823 Compatible Li-Ion Battery: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

I bought a couple with wires permanently attached and a couple where you have to plug an intermediate cable in. Sounds like you've found a more elegant solution, though. I'd prefer a generic "data" battery as it's difficult to know exactly how much charge I've actually got - although I just err on the side of caution and change it as soon as I get a battery warning.

Cheers,

Ben.

[Dave Barnes]

Thanks for the info Ben... I have had my HM100 for about a month now and LOVE its image.... I was very skeptical about everyone who said that this little camera makes incredible images, but alas I am MORE than happy ... its images are STUNNING to say the least... like it so much I am pondering purchasing a second. :)

[George Kilroy]

Thanks for your suggestions Ben.

[Cliff Totten]

Great video! What modes were you shooting in?

Sweet!

CT

[Ben Giles]

Thanks Cliff.

I shoot everything manually, so far everything in 720P 25 at 80fps.

I created a "tilt shift" effect in Magic Bullet and gave it a film gamma-esque grade. Quick and dirty, I shot and edited it in a couple of hours. That's largely thanks to the forgiving nature of the camera and codec - I can get away with all sorts of numptey mistakes that other formats might bite me for...

Ben

[James Downie]

Ben, is your Hoodman the 300 or 400?

Great review, by the way.

[Ben Giles]

James, it's a Hoodman HD300.

Ben.

[James Downie]

Originally Posted by Sam Young

Thanks for the report!

Amazing video as well, beautifully shot with a talented musician.

Can you link us to these jobbie batteries you speak of? I am currently using knock offs bought in Hong Kong, around $35USD a piece, they are data batteries (camcorder can read its battery stamina), and last longer than the JVC ones. Just wondering which ones you have. :)

Sam,
Do you have a link or a manufacturer name for your data batteries?

James

[Gerald Webb]

Hey Ben, Could I ask how you actually shot that solo, what I mean is, did you have a master take with audio and long shot, and then get him to play it through a few more times to get the different angles,
or,
did you use a few different cams set up to get all the shots.
PS. that guy is the parradiddle king.
cheers

[Ben Giles]

Hi Gerald.

Single camera, 5 takes then finally came back for another "Master" shot of the first 30 seconds or so as he was by then warmed up. I then cut for performance - same way I would tackle a pop video, start with the master shot and just let it evolve (when I cut pop promos back in the 90s for the likes of Paul Weller, Jamiroquai and Take That, we'd joke on the side that you could take one editor's EDL and another editor's rushes and you'd still end up with somethng that looked lke a pop promo...) I also did a few single cymbal strike shots - you can use these to add either pace or percussive breaks from a take.

Hope that helps,

Ben.

[Gerald Webb]

yep, cool, thought so, it looks to uniform to be different cams. Its really well constructed though, I really enjoyed watching, thanks.
I like cutting drum solos, this is one I did live a few months back,
YouTube - Bradies Mario Solo